Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 20th, 2020 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM (IST), Documentary Filmmaker Fellipe Lopes and Producer Catriona Rogerson will host a preview of their new documentary TEXTILE MOUNTAIN: The Hidden Burden of our Fashion Waste Below is an abstract of its press release: We in Europe throw away 2 million tonnes of textiles … Read more
Fear plays a major role in influencing the decisions we make and the actions we engage in. Research has shown that there are sound evolutionary reasons for this. The selection pressures from these types of danger have resulted in domain-specificity in the reactivity of the fear system, meaning that the system has evolved special sensitivity … Read more
First there was: ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’ Then there was: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.’ Now there is: ‘We have so much testing. I don’t think you need that kind of testing or that much testing, but … Read more
What the hell? Most people in the U.S. appear to be freaking out about Georgia ending its lockdown before anyone else. Even Trump weighed in, saying he disagreed with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. As we stand, restaurants here opened yesterday, as have bowling alleys, parks, nail salons and other facilities. The State also just declared … Read more
Déjà Vu As Covid-19 sweeps through Ireland, I can’t help experiencing a feeling of déjà vu. In early 2015, I was based in Guinea as part of the international response to the Ebola epidemic ravaging west Africa. I was responsible for reporting on the progress of the epidemic as well as the measures being applied … Read more
Editor’s Note: In avoiding a lockdown, and allowing most schools, restaurants and other businesses to remain open for the duration, the Swedish government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has diverged sharply from those pursued by most other European governments – although neighbouring Norway also avoided a mandatory lockdown, confining people to their homes. With an … Read more
Editor’s Note: A long-term Western resident in China responds to conspiracy theories about the country benefitting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of what is being spread is untrue he says, but he does worry that the country is on the brink of another, dystopian Cultural Revolution. I have been living here for almost a decade. … Read more
Imagine a world where people live isolated in underground one-person apartments, talk to each other only through video-calls, and cannot go out because, if they do, they will not be able to breathe for long. You have just imagined the world of E.M. Forster’s novella The Machine Stops, in which humanity have altered the world … Read more
It all happened too fast, so quickly that we didn’t have time to fully understand. The night before we were sipping beer and eating tapas and waiting for spring to come in the warm evening breeze; the following day we were on the sofa consulting the Netflix schedule for the umpteenth time, without finding an … Read more
Donald Trump’s abrupt announcement of a U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria last October brought dire warnings of an ISIS resurgence in the media, and criticism from its regional allies. There were even mutterings of discontent among fellow Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.[i] However, a significant number of commentators sounded a note of relief. … Read more